Not good with words: Council in climbdown on pupils quizzing new heads.

Education: Council claims report was “worded incorrectly”

Education chiefs have climbed down on plans to give pupils the chance to “interview” new head teachers.

Perth and Kinross Council officials have admitted a paper suggesting children would get to grill new heads and deputies as part of a revised recruitment process had been “worded incorrectly”.

Members of the lifelong learning committee agreed to take out the word “interview” to stress that children would instead have “informal discussions” with candidates.

It follows concerns highlighted in The Courier that some teachers who have been interviewed by children in other parts of the country felt the process was “humiliating”.

The council’s head of education, Sharon Johnston, told the committee that her report should have referred to “pupil engagement” rather than interviews.

“This process comes from feedback from parents who said that pupils should have some involvement, and have their views taken into account, as part of the process,” she said.

“It wouldn’t be that the pupils had the right to choose their head teacher, but they would be involved in the assessment process at stage one.”

She said candidates who had been given the chance to meet and speak to children “feel that having more time in the school and having some involvement with pupils gives them more scope to provide fuller answers at the next stage of the interview process.

“That’s the process which we would like to see taken at Perth and Kinross Council.”

Councillor Willie Wilson asked for the committee to write to education secretary John Swinney to highlight difficulties in recruitment and ask for “a review of salary scales”.

It emerged that, as part of ongoing efforts to find and retain staff, some applicants had been offered travel costs and relocation expenses.

Videos were also made by staff and children to attract new heads to Oakbank Primary and RDM Primary in Scone.

In her report to the committee, Ms Johnston said that on one occasion in the last year, no permanent head teacher was found after the recruitment process was concluded. The post had to be readvertised. She added that head teacher recruitment was a “significant challenge” nationally.

It wouldn’t be that the pupils had the right to choose their head teacher, but they would be involved in the assessment process at stage one. SHARON JOHNSTON HEAD OF EDUCATION